


This Dark and Twisty Road

by Rizobact



Series: TFPrime Shattered Glass AU [6]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime, Transformers: Shattered Glass
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Nature, Shattered Glass, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 10:16:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7797898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rizobact/pseuds/Rizobact
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Airachnid makes her way through the woods to scout a possible energon deposit on Earth... but the end of the road isn't what she expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Dark and Twisty Road

**Author's Note:**

> Mind the archive warning (though I won't spoil the surprise at the end completely by naming anyone but Airachnid). Written for the writing group challenge, 'a series of actions through a space'. Takes place after chapter 4 of [Cassandra](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4463552/chapters/10142537) by [dragonofdispair](http://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonofdispair/pseuds/dragonofdispair).

Little girl, keep yourself upon the trail  _ (keep yourself upon the trail) _

If you stray, you'll become a cautionary tale  _ (you'll become a cautionary tale) _

_ —  _ Abney Park _ “This Dark and Twisty Road” _

_. _

_. _

Thin wisps of mist rose from the moist earth in the early morning sunrise, winding their way around thick tree trunks and trailing softly along the ground. Insubstantial as it was, the mist nonetheless added to the atmosphere it filled, veiling the forest in soft, white quietude.

Airachnid moved silently through the trees, preserving the sanctity of the dawn as undisturbed as possible. How marvelous this planet was, that there were places like this -- ancient but  _ alive, _ alive the way Cybertron hadn’t been in… well, in a very long long time. Certainly longer than this forest had existed, so perhaps ancient wasn’t the best choice of words. But age was relative. The trees were old by Earthen standards, and the cliffs and corresponding ravines were even older. Ancient was an appropriate descriptor for them.

The surface of the trees was soft beneath her fingers as she ghosted like the mist from one to the next. Undoubtedly to the indigenous lifeforms it felt rough and hard, but against her plating it felt almost delicate. Fragile. She paused, tracing the cracks and grooves in the bark with a single digit. Small pieces flaked away and settled to the ground, adding to the litter cushioning her steps. How easy it would be to rend through the flimsy organic armor, claw marks bleeding sap all the way down to the heartwood… 

She pulled her hand away before her fingers could curl hard enough to cause any damage. Fists clenching at her sides, Airachnid moved on, leaving the memories behind with the tree. Focus. There was a mission to complete. Now was not the time for morbid contemplation.

The mist parted around her as she increased her stride, swirling in her wake before closing behind her to leave no trace of her passage. New trees loomed up out of the fog, then were swallowed up by it again, disappearing as readily as they appeared. It gave the illusion she was getting nowhere, her view hardly changing save for small variations in the topography.

At last she came upon a true landmark, a flowing ribbon of liquid water carving its way through the forest -- a river. Airachnid pulled up her scanner to check her position. The Decepticon’s initial surveys of the area placed the energon deposit along the river, but further to the south. She would need to head upstream.

Packing the scanner away, taking a moment to appreciate the simple action and being able to access subspace without worrying about  _ rationing,  _ Airachnid considered her options. The banks of the river were not stable enough for something of her size and mass to walk without crumbling and sending her tumbling into the water. It was doubtful such a fall would injure her significantly enough to be of any real concern -- the river rock was hard enough to scratch paint, not rend plating -- but it would be noisy, undignified. Just because there was no one around to see was no reason to be careless.

Better to walk along the riverbed than the banks, she decided. The water was moving fast enough to stir up silt, muddying it to the point of being opaque but it wasn’t all that deep, nor was the current strong enough to pose a problem for a Cybertronian. Climbing down a shallow embankment, she shifted her weight from two feet up onto six, her body lifting above the surface of the river as she used the spindly limbs arching from her back to give her simultaneously less surface area for the water to push against and more stability from the additional points of contact with the slippery, uneven ground.

She chose her steps with swift, controlled movements. Following the river, she was able to make easier progress towards her goal than she had been making through the trees. It still wasn’t a direct path, not with the way the stream occasionally twisted and meandered, but it was one she didn’t have to worry about losing her way on. Either would have taken the same amount of time in all likelihood, but that was fine. She wasn’t in a hurry. There was no need to rush.

The sun rose higher as she continued on her way, burning off the mist and sparkling on the water. It sparkled on her plating too, making the soft lavenders stand out and glow amidst the blacks. Where she wasn’t covered with dust and dirt and other various substances, anyway. That had taken some getting used to when they had first arrived on Earth -- all the many, many particulates that were absolutely  _ impossible  _ to get away from completely.

At least they tended toward annoying rather than lethal. Airachnid would take carbon ashes and organic detritus over contaminated rust or haunted smelter dust any day. This far away from any developed human settlements it was even better, in fact. The usual soot and oil that filled the air and caked in joints (much to Knockout’s perpetual dismay) were largely absent, and while she knew she would need to spend a fair amount of time later cleaning any lingering riverbed souvenirs from her feet, the slide of the cool mud and water was quite pleasant now.

The contrasts of temperature and texture on this planet were novelties that had yet to wear off for Airachnid. She wanted to take samples to bring back and study, to keep and put on display in her collection. Her very own personal Earth museum like the ones the humans had… but mounting insects and gathering minerals would have to wait. Her Lair was back on Cybertron, and right now the only ‘mineral’ that mattered was energon.

Shadows shortened as the sun reached its peak, beaming down with a warm intensity that cut the crispness of the autumn air. Another example of the relativeness of time, Airachnid mused as she came to a fork in the river where two separate streams met and mingled to form one. Her chronometer showed less than forty breems had passed, but already half the day was gone. She brought her scanner out again, checking the indicator before following the smaller stream to the left.

The trees began to thin and give way to craggy mountain rock the farther along she went. The lessening cover in her surroundings made her plating prickle, but Airachnid shook off the feeling of being exposed. There were no indications that the Autobots had found this deposit yet and no signs of them anywhere in the forest -- and they weren’t exactly the stealthiest bunch. Still, keeping an optic out for them was part of the reason she was here as a scout (there weren’t many opportunities for espionage or sabotage with only the tiny contingents both factions had on Earth). If they  _ had  _ found this place, it was her job to find out and report back.

The day wore on. At last Airachnid was forced to leave the riverbed once it became too narrow and uneven for her to navigate effectively. The ground was more solid here though, leaf mold and soft river clay replaced by firm earth and rock, making it possible to continue alongside it without the earlier danger of the bank giving out beneath her. She stayed on six legs rather than two all the same. It was much easier to sidestep or climb over obstacles that way, and gave her a higher vantage point besides.

Glancing at her scanner once more, she saw that it was detecting multiple energon signals nearby. She should be coming up on them soon… 

_ There! _

Rounding a bend, Airachnid finally spotted the bright energon crystals peeking out of the gray rock. In the red light of the evening sun they glowed a deep blue, one or two flickering almost  _ purple  _ where they clustered in shadowed hollows. Now she dropped down onto her feet, folding her other limbs behind her to make herself smaller as she crept along a ridge of scraggly trees to examine the crystals more closely.

It was a large deposit, completely untouched. The vein ran deep, branching underground and peeking above the surface in several places that all blinked happily on her scanner. This was a much bigger find than Starscream had anticipated! She was tempted to call it in right away, but managed to hold off. She needed to secure the site first. 

She began looking around for signs of Autobot activity, pacing off a perimeter carefully. The only signs of disturbance she saw were all natural, storm damage in the form of trees downed by high winds and rockfalls triggered by rain and runoff. No claw marks, no plasma burns, no evidence of any drilling or mining.

_ Perfect! _

_ *CRRRNCH!!* _

_ What… ? _

There was energon on the rocks, not raw crystals but  _ her  _ energon, liquid and flowing from the gaping wound that had appeared suddenly in her chest. Airachnid couldn’t remember falling, couldn’t feel the blow that felled her… she never even saw Ultra Magnus, his signature masked by the raw energon all around them, his triumphant face reflecting in the glowing pool spreading out around her.

The shadow of her body on the ground lengthened as the sun set and the light faded away, carrying with it her final transmission.

.

.

.

End


End file.
